Arise, Riders of Rohanna! Ride for Molach! [SPOILERS!]

[Merovech]

Crime rate effects the rate of certain events. It's not very important. Also, I like the Monty Python reference.

[Molach]

Yeah, and thanks for that link/embed Ellimist, cracks me up every time.

[Molach]

So yesterday, much play no report.

Turn 67

Some shots showing barbarian units moving. EOT.


SW secure I guess, in the NE I have just 1 extra unit. Will send up an archer soon.

Demo:

Turn 68

Event!

Yeah, with 20 gold I get a -20 gold event. Good. Perfect. I know this well from SP, and it leads to a choice later; 2 free slaves (1/2-power workers) or -10 crime rate.

Capital finished settler, because I forgot that chopping a forest gives hammers...

Good thing, earlier bronze.

EOT - barbarians approaching! Goblin + warrior north, another warrior south. Free exp...


Archer decided to hog all the exp, killed a bear and warrior on defense. I moved worker onto bronzeville hill to road. Speeds up city by a turn. He will road copper, then improve pigs, then probably do the gold. Archer stay city, demon cover worker. A bit better defensive units here than offense, will want a regular bronzed warrior soon. First build is still monument, work bornze till pigs are under control...

Demos:

Turn 69
Again EOT shots.
Bear failed to attack, probably gathering up courage to attack next turn. Settler in Amon Harad now, worker will start road turn 70 while settler moves in, next turn road finish and bronzeville is settled. New worker in Amon will plantation.


I've got a regular worker + slave cottaging this tile for capital. This being end of turn, I can only make this attack next turn. I could simple move warrior south and cover workforce. 0'dI get better odds, but if I get real unlucky I lose warrior+worker+slave. Nope. Also I'll get exp by attacking. If I lose I'll move the workers, though.
I moved city defender in Beingond, a warrior, onto the jungle hill. Also a worker there, which will fail to finish mine in time to get out of the way. Perhaps I'll send a slave up there instead. If warrior loses on defense I'll curse, but can counterattack with the scout. If both those somehow fail I'll lose the city. Hm. No warrior on defense will 90% win. If not easy cleanup for scout.

Demos (no tech selected):

According to master plan, I go masonry -> construction then HBR. Can build by end-game (?) military then.

Then there is the CoL -> bulb currency line, for building the GoTN.

After construction, sanitation is a quick, double-prereq'd tech. That would mean that a revolt to aristo + consumption will not cripple growth in new cities as much, and still give great commerce.
There is also the fishing -> (message of the deep) detour - religion for culture.
Or a rush at deception for great spellups.
Also the run to deception might be within range. But if/when I get the GotN I should probably shut off tech and kill the booted heel of the Orc.

[Molach]

Turn 70

The turn the barbarian invasions began.

Animal husbandry in.


Heres a cool thought:

Can give him animal capture, then upgrade to horseman. Very mobile animal-hunter... But will there be animals still on the map in 20 turns' time? I don't actually know.

Warrior won 89% combat.


Lost a pic of the NE. Barb did not attack jungled hill, surprise. I think I'll take the 50% shot here with warrior, and clean up with scout if I miss. All new warrior will get a promo, so a 0 exp warrior is very replacable. Plus more exp on the scout can't hurt, even if it won't be much.

SW, two warriors moved into attack position.

One is on the mine. Be very annoying if he pillages this but not much I can do. Anyway city founded next turn, starts a monument. Amon builds an archer in 2 turns, and Glorduin will build a warrior as another barb appeared south.

Demos:

[Molach]

Turn 71

Where Molach learns to mouse over enemy stack, and learns a lesson.

Founded new city, forgot to rename. Obviously.

First, new city founded. I then took a deep breath, and attacked with archer out of city. At 78% odds.

And won! Bronze mine is secured. 2 turns and the road is done.

Monument primarily for tactical purposes, not because 1st ring sucks or anything.

Why attack? Well firstly, my 50% attack in the NE failed. No damage at all to barb warrior! Great. Scout back into city. Think. Then chopped a forest into a new warrior. City will hold, will lose plantation.


And there was this. The barb warrior I noticed was actually 4. Had to do a mayor shuffle, but next turn I'll have 4 warriors in the city as well, so it'll hold. Shouldn't lose any warriors either.


EOT shots:
I didn't even know this guy was under attack. Quite a bit of damage, considering 55% defense. I'll see about bringing him back, would like the barbwatch to be up a bit longer.


NW: A barb. No worry.


4 warriors next to my city. They are combat 1, of course. My newly produced warrior would be, but they will attack before I can promote. 2 more are headed into the city, one of them C1. Other rookie from capital, which meant capital got angry for a turn. I gathered gold for a turn, emergency upgrade for adventurer I was thinking, but training yard finishes next turn now.


And here's why Serdoa suddenly caught up in GnP. Aristocrats. He'll have +25% military production, he'll have masonry and at least a warren or two. He must have farmed his whole map over, and now he finally got aristo, he's got all the commerce he'll need. I'm still 10 turns away from it, and not even sure it pays to go straight there just yet.

He lost barb peace, but I suppose that only means more exp and that he can pop some lairs and stuff now.

I'll tech and build my army as planned, see if I make it in time before his hordes are at my door. Probably he'll attack balseraphs, easier kill and closer too. Nothing much I can do about it. If I ever meet clowns I'd say "NAP till 5 turns after the clowns are no longer in score lead" or something. Perhaps there is still a fight waiting, but clowns aren't too hot in the soldier department, so not sure how long he can resist. the gtAngel war probably only made Serdoa stronger, by giving him a top-promoted unit.

[Ranamar]

I'd keep the slaves as another worker for awhile yet, given your worries about worker turns, tbh.

Barbarians do seem to show up in stacks of 4 usually... at least, that's how it sticks in my mind.

As for the scout... well, why not promote to Horseman? It's not like you're going to go for rangers, are you?
It'll be more useful, probably as a horse with animal capture and no animals than as a hunter with animal capture and no animals, at the very least... and that means you can upgrade all the way to horse archer, eventually.
Of course, it still probably won't be enormously relevant unless someone goes for Fellowship of Leaves... but if someone does, you could use it to steal their tigers.

[Ichabod]

Stacks of four warriors with combat 1 come from barb cities. The barb city AI makes it produce 4 warriors and then send them to attack someone. They probably come from the barb city to the south. After some time, they'll send another one.

[Molach]

Yeah scout can become horseman, with combat 2 not a loss either way. It's probably not 20 turns in the future either, seems my research times keep shortening more than I forsee. Construction in 3 turns, then HBR shouldn't take more than 3-4 turns either. So maybe 10.

The slaves are indeed working. Even though they work at half speed, they can save a lot of turns. For instance, a road is 2 turns, but 1 normal + 1 slave also builds in 2 turns. So in short, my need for worker micro-management, and payoff thereof, just rose several notches. However I have a good way to deal with that.

...

And yes, they must have come from that barbarian city. I'll research construction, build a siege workshop and get my revenge. Soon. (I think a bronze axeman will have too low odds, but I'll check that out too)

Turn 72

Hold the line! Hold fast!
We've been preparing these posistion for years. We've cut down trees to have clear fields of fire. We have trenches. Wooden stakes pointing outwards. Walls. And several clubs and sling-stones for every man. We simply cannot....
- Captain, reinforcements coming up from our rear. Shall we signal the advance?
- Y.....wait those are not reinforcements! To arms, to.....


I wrote 'no casulties expected' but that was before I realized they were combat I. And also before I knew they had made every (human) sacrifice to the dark god Arengee to help them in the coming fight.
Two barbarians killed, two defenders killed. One was a rookie, other was, sadly, the newly produced one with 2 exp. Winners were the griffon-slayer and some new guy. First defender, with 25% fortify and 25% city defense....yeah, sure. Take him. I'll build some more.

North situation.

Nothing to worry about. My bronze weapons shall slice gut their barbarian bellies wide open. Only the black blood of the Orc can wash away the slaughter of so many good men near Glorduin. The city should be renamed Seregduin.


Demos:

Oop, gotta run. Next turn is here.

[Molach]

Well, one piece of C&D should always be part of a thread. So here's one:
Orcs have construction and not HBR. Both tech are 383 beakers. Const. shows 4 turns, HBR 5.

[Ichabod]

Holy, talk about bad luck. Is the city safe for the next turn? Those barbs are definetely gaining promotions (I think barb warriors from cities start with 4 xp, so they'll have the 5 xp promo for sure).